1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects a light hardening liquid onto a medium, and that hardens the liquid that has been ejected on the medium by irradiating the liquid with a light ray. Embodiments further relate to a light source module that is attachable to the liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
An ink jet printer is an example of liquid ejection apparatus that performs printing by ejecting an ink onto paper through nozzles formed in an ejecting head and is known. A printer that ejects an ultraviolet (hereinafter, also referred to as “UV”) hardening ink, which hardens when irradiated with a UV ray or UV radiation, is also known (refer to, for example, JP-A-2009-160920).
In this printer, a UV light source is attached at both edges of an ejecting head. When an image or the like is printed on a medium, a UV hardening ink is ejected towards the medium through nozzles which are provided in the ejecting head. When the UV hardening ink, which has adhered to the medium, is irradiated with a UV ray, the UV hardening ink promptly hardens on the medium.
In addition, in a printer provided with such a UV light source, there is a case where it becomes difficult to ensure that an amount of light necessary to harden the UV hardening ink is delivered because of a degradation of the UV light source. For this reason and when necessary, maintenance work is carried out, for example by replacing the UV light source.
Meanwhile, even though UV light sources are manufactured so as to comply with the same specification, differences sometimes occur among their respective light irradiation features due to variation in manufacturing processes. Further, when an existing UV light source is replaced by a new UV light source and their specifications are different from each other, their light irradiation features are also different from each other. Thus, even when a driving electric current of the same amount is caused to flow through a light source before and after a replacement of the light source, a variation sometimes occurs in an amount of irradiated light. In other words, the amount of irradiated light emitted by a light source that replaces an older light source may be different even though the specification of the two light sources are the same and even when the same driving electric current is used.
The printer may include an information storage portion. The information storage portion may retain or store programs executed by a control device of the printer as well as various kinds of information necessary for the control performed by the control device. The information storage portion may also retain or store control data adapted to a light irradiation feature of a light source which was attached in the printer at the time when various kinds of information was stored into the information storage portion last time. For this reason, replacement of a UV light source causes a new UV light source to be controlled on the basis of control data adapted to a previous UV light source. Thus, it is likely to be difficult to appropriately perform control of an amount of light irradiated from the new UV light source.
Thus, after a UV light source is replaced in a maintenance work, control data for a light source, which control data has been retained in the control device, is updated by actually driving the new light source and learning a light irradiation feature of the new light source after the replacement. Nevertheless, there is problem that, when such an update operation needs to be performed, a period of time required for the maintenance work becomes long.
In addition, such a problem is not limited to an ink jet printer which performs printing using a UV hardening ink, but is mostly common to liquid ejecting apparatuses each ejecting a light hardening ink.